Gas or vapor electric apparatus.



UNITED STATES Patented May 24, 1904.

PATE T OFFICE.

MAX VON RECKLINGHAUSEN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO COOPER HEWITT ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

GAS OR VAPOR ELECTRIC APPARATUS- SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 760,483, dated May 24, 1904.

Application filed February 14, 1903. Renewed September 29, 1903. Serial No. 175,090. (No model.)

. HAUsEN, a subject of the Emperor of Germany,

and a resident of New York, county ofNew York, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas or Vapor Electric Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

For reasons which are readily understood it is desirable that gas or vapor electric apparatus of the class invented by Peter Cooper Hewitt and disclosed in certain patents issued to him September 17, 1901, should when utilized as a rectifier or so-called static converter be made of other material than glass; and it has accordingly been proposed to manufacture the main body of the rectifier or converter from iron or other metal, which metal has hitherto been in intimate connection with the fluid electrode constituting the negative electrode of the apparatus. It is found, however, in practice that when the metal is thus intimately associated with the negative electrode it may in operation give off gases which tend to destroy the vacuum. On the other hand, if the metal is made a part of the positive electrode or connected therewith without insulation and the metal is properly cooled it is possible to operate the apparatus without the development of gases from the iron to an injurious extent. In apparatus of this class it frequently happens that a supplemental positive electrode is used to assist in starting the apparatus and in maintaining a flow of current in a uniform direction through the apparatus, so that even if the metal should not for any reason be utilized as a part of the main positive electrode it may conveniently be used as the supplemental positive electrode, in which case the time during which it serves as an electrode may be too short for the de velopment of injurious gases in case it is used only to assist in starting or the current flowing through the said electrode may be so small as to involve no dangerous results when the said electrode is utilized as a terminal for a continuously-applied current of uniform direction.

The present invention is designed to prometal tube 5 dips into this annulus.

vide means whereby one or both of the principal electrodes in a gas or vapor electric apparatus of the character described is insulated from the metallic body of which the container of the apparatus is constructed, whereby the formation of deleterious gases within the container is avoided.

The drawing illustrating my invention is partly an elevation and partly a section of apparatus designed to accomplish the results mentioned.

In the drawing, 1 is a container of a gas or vapor electric apparatus of the class described. This container may be of iron or other suitable metal, and it is preferably'connected by a pipe or tube 2 with a cooling or condensing chamber 3, surrounded by a water-jacket 4:. Leading from the container 1 are pipes 5 and 6, of metal, which may be formed on or suitably connected with the container 1, so as to be gas-tight. The construction of the tubes 5 and 6 and the parts associated therewith is identical, and I have illustrated the details only in connection with the tube 5.

It will be seen that a glass tube 7 extends through the metallic tube 5 and is turned upward at the bottom, as shown at 8. The turned-up portion forms an annulus around the lower end of the smaller portion of the barometer-tube 7, and the lower end of the The glass tube itself terminates within a vessel 9, containing mercury. The height of the glass tube 7 above the surface of the mercury in the vessel 9 is such that the force of atmospheric pressure upon the mercury in the said vessel is sufficient'to raise the mercury in the glass tube to, a point where it may conveniently formo ne" of the electrodes of the apparatus. It will be convenient to consider the mercury column in the glass tube 7 inside the metal tube 5 as the negative electrode of the apparatus and the column in the glass tube 7 (not shown) inside the metal tube 6 as the positive electrode. In case it is desired to make the container itself a portion of the positive electrode electrical connection can be made by any suitable means directly with the container 1, as indicated at 10. In that case the tube 6 and the associated devices could be dispensed with; If preferred, however, the tube 6 alone might be used, and it might dip directly into the mercury in a vessel 9, already described. In case two insulated electrodes are used, one as the positive and the other as a the negative, which assume an identical construction for the tubes 5 and 6 and their related parts the connection 10 may be utilized as a means for joining to the container by a wire 12, connected with a source 13 of continuous current, the other side of which is joined to the mercury in the vessel 9, where in any case the connections to the negative electrode are made either by a conductor dipping into the mercury in the said vessel or through the vessel itselt'.

The chamber 3 may conveniently be located at a higher level than the container 1 and may be connected by a small pipe or tube 14 with the upper end of a fall-tube 15, the arrangement being such that the condensed vapor in the cooling-chamber shall be emptied into the fall-tube in drops. The fall-tube terminates in a vessel 16, containing mercury, and atmospheric pressure serves to maintain a column of mercury in the fall-tube. Means may be provided for passing the overflow of mercury from the vessel 16 when it shall have reached a certain level into the vessels 9 and 11 or either of them. For this purpose I show a pipe 17 and branch pipes 18 18, leading from the vessel 16 to a point just above the vessel named.

It will be understood that the container 1 may, if desired, simply be utilized as a supplemental electrode for starting purposes only, or it may constitute permanently the positive electrode of the apparatus, or it may be connected, as shown in the drawing, as a supplemental electrode with a source of continuous current.

In order to form a seal for the metal tube 5, I place in the cup or annulus appearing at 8 a quantity of mercury. Thelevel of the mercury in the cup or annulus will generally be lower than that of the mercury in the vessel 9, so as not to expose too much of the upper end of the mercury constituting the seal in the neighborhood of the electrode.

The illustrated form of rectifier or converter is one of the simplest forms in which a single negative electrode is used and a single main positive electrode. The invention is applica ble, however, to more complex forms of apparatus wherein a plurality of electrodes is employed.

The container 1 may be constructed of metal only or of metal combined with some other substance. In other words, the virtues of the present invention would still exist if the container were partly of a metal which might come into contact with the negative electrode, but which is prevented from thus coming into contact with it by the means herein described or their equivalent. The tube 7 and the corresponding tube at the right of the iigurc, which have been described as glass tubes, might be made of some material having a greater heat-resisting quality-as, for example, silicaor instead of making the whole tube of silica or other good heat-resisting material the mouth of the tube, which is exposed to the heat at the electrode, may be of the selected material to serve the same purpose. The advantages of the silica tube would apply whether the electrode with which it might be associated is the negative electrode or the positive electrode.

I claim as my invention- 1. A gas or Vapor electric apparatus comprising a container of metal, a conducting gas or vapor within the same, and suitable electrodes, of means for insulating the negative electrode from the metal of the container.

2. In a gas or vapor electric apparatus comprising a container constructed wholly or in part of metal, a conducting gas 01' vapor therein and suitable electrodes, and means for insulating the negative electrode from the metal of the container.

3. In a gas or vapor electric apparatus, a container constructed wholly or in part of metal, a conducting gas or vapor therein, a negative electrode insulated from the metal of the container, a positive electrode constituted by the metal, and means for cooling the positive electrode.

4. In a gas or vapor electric apparatus, a container constructed wholly or in part of metal, a conducting gas or vapor therein, a negative electrode insulated from the metal, and a positive electrode constituted by the metal of the container.

5. In a gas or vapor electric device in which it is desired to maintain a vacuum in which either part of the containing-case or the whole, or one or more materials within the case are capable of acting as electrodes and giving oil gases tending to destroy the vacuum when so acting, and one or more negative electrodes, means for insulating one or more of the electrodes from such portions as above referred to which may act as electrodes.

6. In a gas or vapor electric apparatus comprising electrodes and parts associated therewith which in the operation of the apparatus might give off injurious gases when acting as electrodes, and means for insulating one or more of the electrodes from such parts.

7 In a gas or vapor electric apparatus comprising a container, a conducting gas or vapor, and suitable electrodes, the inner walls or surfaces of the container having the property of giving off deleterious gases when acting as electrode-surfaces, means for insulating the negative electrode from the said walls or surfaces.

8. In a gas or vapor electric apparatus comprising a container constructed wholly or in part of metal, a conducting gas or vapor therein, an electrode insulated from the metal of the container, the means of insulation being an insulating-tube provided with a mercury seal.

9. In a gas or vapor electric apparatus comprising a container constructed wholly or in part of metal, a conducting gas or vapor therein, an electrode insulated from the metal of the container, the means of insulation being 10 an insulating-tube provided with a mercury York and State of New York, this 11th day of I5 February, A. D. 1903.

MAX VON RECKLINGHAUSEN. Witnesses:

WM. H. CAPEL,

GEORGE H. STOCKBRIDGE. 

